Populist Croatian President Zoran Milanović of the social democratic party SDP failed to win a majority in the first round of elections on Sunday. That is why he will have to face Dragan Primorac of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in a second round of elections. On January 12, Croats can go to the polls again. This was reported by the French news agency AFP.
Milanović, who is also called the ‘Croatian Trump’, is critical of the European Union and NATO. He is trying to profit from a corruption scandal surrounding the rival Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which resulted in thirty ministers resigning or being fired.
If Milanović wins the second round of elections, he will have to work again with incumbent Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković of HDZ, whom he called a “dictator”. News site reports this Politico.
Low turnout
Although Milanović is considered the favorite to win the election, it was already expected based on polls that he would need two rounds of elections to start a second presidential term. Yet, when the exit polls were in, it looked as if he would win a majority in the first round.
As more votes were counted, his percentage of votes fell below 50 percent again. In the end he got stuck at 49.1 percent. The candidate who finished second, Primorac, received about 19.3 percent of the votes.
At 46 percent, the turnout rate for the presidential elections was significantly lower than in April, when 62 percent of eligible Croats went to the polls for the parliamentary elections. The Christmas holidays may play a role, says the AFP news agency.